First flight of Boeing's Delta IV Heavy launcher has been scheduled for 10 December from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a demonstration mission for the US Air Force. Japan plans to resume launches of the H2A, grounded since the November 2003 booster failure, in February 2005 carrying the MTSAT satellite. A Belarussian remote-sensing satellite, BelKA, based on a Russian Energia Victoria spacecraft bus, will be launched next year by Russian booster. nFollowing the scheduled launch of its first lunar orbiter in 2007, China plans a soft landing on the Moon in 2012 and a sample return mission in 2017. The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to launch a 3-50m (10-165ft) -resolution C-band agile synthetic-aperture radar imaging satellite, RISAT, in 2006-7 by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle for crop inventorying and disaster management.
Source: Flight International
